Most ball or roller bearings currently in use include sliding friction between their rotating elements and retaining means. Also, all contact under load is between rigid elements, there thus being virtually no inherent spring or shock-absorbing capability.
Although numerous rolling-contact-only bearings have been proposed during about the past century, none have come into common use. Two major reasons for this are: typically all rotating elements are simultaneously under bearing load, resulting in excessive rolling friction, and; dimensional variations between rotating elements cause cumulative-tolerance slippage after repeated rotation, this slippage occuring under full bearing load and thus being appreciable.
Related rolling-contact-only devices are disclosed my U.S. patent applications: Ser. No. 414,150 of Nov. 9, 1973 entitled Rolling Contact Bearing Devices; U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,536 Ser. No. 424,553 of Dec. 13, 1973 entitled Rolling Contact Devices; U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,005 Ser. No. 437,937 of Jan. 30, 1974 entitled Toothed Rolling Contact Devices, U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,506 and; Ser. No. 511,237 of Oct. 2, 1974 entitled Rolling Contact Bearings. U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,324 . Various bearing devices are proposed therein which avoid sliding contact between rotating elements, and which usually avoid cumulative-tolerance slippage. However, none of them use spring-rings to provide separation between rotating elements and to simultaneously provide appreciable deflection under bearing load.